Low loss and highly birefringent photonic crystal fibre for terahertz applications

A highly birefringent photonic crystal fibre, with horizontal arrangement of three elliptical air holes in the core and hexagonal arrangement of circular air holes in the cladding, has been proposed for transmission of terahertz waves. Guiding properties of the fibre have been rigorously investigated using finite element method with perfectly matched layer boundary conditions. It has been demonstrated that high birefringence of 0.08 can be achieved with low effective material loss of 0.03 cm(-1) at 1.3 THz. Moreover, it has been shown that about 42 % of useful power flows through the elliptical core air holes. Near-zero flattened dispersion of 1.18 +/- 0.01 ps/THz/cm is obtained for the x-polarisation mode of the fibre. Other important optical properties such as confinement, bending and total losses have also been investigated; further strengthening potential applicability of the proposed fibre for next-generation terahertz research.